Yesterday, we took a look at "A Very Potter Sequel," a fast and funny (though perhaps a bit overlong) musical comedy by Team Starkid. Today, we bring you something completely different on literally every level: "The Scottsboro Boys," the final musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, as directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman.
It would be hard to think of a less commercial musical than "Scottsboro:" an all-black (save for one minor character), no-stars, extra-low-budget musical about a miscarriage of justice in Alabama during the Great Depression, sentencing nine black men to prison for an alleged rape which they did not commit. But perhaps the "no-stars" distinction is not entirely accurate. There are no big stars onstage- the biggest you'll see are John Cullum, a fairly successful Broadway figure from years past who still appears as a character actor occasionally on stage and screen, or Josh Henry, who played The General in last season's "American Idiot." However, the creative team are the true all-stars here.
Kander and Ebb, the music and lyrical team behind "Chicago," "Cabaret," "Curtains," and "New York, New York." Director/choreographer Susan Stroman, best known for her direction and choreography of the Tony-Award winning musicals "The Producers" and "Crazy For You," does great work with her material, turning out electrifying number after number, and countless brilliant stage moments. Working with extreme minimalism, the entirety of the show's set and props are made from twelve steel chairs arranged, stacked, sprawled or reconfigured a myriad of ways, becoming everything from a train, to a prison cell, to the barbed-wire-enclosed obstacle course outside of a prison. The dancing, as well, is stellar, utilizing tap, cakewalk, kicklines and countless other minstrel-show techniques to... wait. Did I forget to mention the minstrel show? Oh, yeah...
Here's where the controversy kicks in. "The Scottsboro Boys" tells its story through the now-antiquated theatrical style known as the minstrel show: black vaudeville at its most degrading and degraded. A white ringmaster, the Interlocutor, and his black "boys" sing, dance and play the fool for the audience, aided by the Interlocutor's two chief clowns, Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo, who play all the "white people" roles as broad ethnic caricatures- Southern belles, big-city Jewish lawyers, and racist redneck policemen. This is social satire of an extremely daring kind- condemning racism and the use of ethnic stereotypes by inverting, subverting and flip-flopping genders, classes and ethnic groups, and it is only natural that some audiences didn't get that the joke was on them. During the short Broadway run of "The Scottsboro Boys," the theatre was picketed by many groups offended by the use of blackface, the minstrel show tradition, or the depiction of Jews. Whoopi Goldberg, a supporter of the show, quickly pointed out that most of the protesters had not actually even seen the show.
The performances are wonderful across the board, with Josh Henry's portrayal of Haywood, the "boy" who refused to cave and plead guilty even if it meant parole, being particularly strong, the dramatic root in a show full of pitch-black comedy. Also, Coleman Domingo and Forrest McClendon are hilarious and cringeworthy as Bones and Tambo, whose antics and caricatures are simultaneously uproarious and subtly disturbing.
The grand prize for best in show, though, goes to director Stroman, who, though she never appears onstage, makes her touch and presence palpable in literally every moment, much like Bob Fosse did in the musicals he directed and choreographed. The "Make Friends With The Truth" musical number must be seen to be believed: as Haywood shucks and jives his way through a tale of a little boy whose dishonesty always leads him into trouble, a bedsheet stretched behind him becomes a shadow theatre. Haywood dances a duo with his own silhouette (another actor behind him) in perfect synchronization and interplay, then later dances in front of it as his shadow becomes a grotesque, monstrous creature dancing in step with him. After a silhouetted lynching, Haywood becomes Saint Peter at the pearly gates, and the bedsheet flies up on poles and becomes a pair of wings for him. Genuine stage magic, with nothing but a lantern, twelve chairs and a bedsheet.
In closing, it seems almost unfair to rank "Scottsboro" against the greatest works of Kander and Ebb- not because it is inferior, or even in a different class, but because time has treated "Chicago" and "Cabaret" with such huge favor that "Cabaret" and its film version are considered one of the greatest musicals of all time, and a revival of "Chicago" currently holds the record for longest-running revival of all time. Against such iconic works, "Scottsboro" seems a footnote- but will it rise to prominence over time, despite its untimely end on Broadway? Only time will tell.
The Scottsboro Boys: A+
LESSON FOR ACTORS: Pay attention in your theatre history classes! Absorb as many techniques, genres, styles and tools of the trade as you can, because you never know when they will come in handy. Just because something is no longer current, don't assume that it won't make a comeback in one form or another. Two years ago, actors might have assumed that the minstrel show was gone for good, and would never play a legitimate stage again, but here it comes, big and bad as ever.
WARNING FOR ACTORS: Don't look for more attention than you warrant- sometimes you simply have to be the background. If the woman playing the part of The Woman, a one-line character who only speaks in the show's final moment, had drawn any audience attention before her sudden chance in the spotlight, her impact would have been lost. Rather, by being always silent, and always in the shadows but ever present throughout the show, her mere presence onstage made her more interesting than anything she could have said or done.
LESSON FOR WRITERS: Tell the stories you feel need to be told. Kander and Ebb surely knew that "The Scottsboro Boys" would be a controversial show, but they felt the need to make the injustice known and educate audiences while entertaining them, just like they did with "Cabaret," a musical that, for all its high-energy production numbers and big standards, is really a show about how German citizens were complicit in the rise of Nazism. Don't be afraid of how audiences will react- tell your story the way you want to tell it.
WARNING FOR WRITERS: Despite the above, be well aware that not everyone will get what you're trying to do. Picture three audiences that could attend your show- a cultured, fairly well-educated audience, an uncultured, uneducated audience, and the type of people who will judge your show before they even get to see it. Consider how the show will play to the first and second groups, and then consider the blanket argument of the uninformed but agitated masses. What will their inevitable complaint or fear be? Consider what in your work will defend you against their accusations once they have actually SEEN the show. If nothing comes to mind, consider rethinking how you are saying what you are saying in your play.
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